Fighting destruction and violence: A Hanukkah commitment

By Amy Hirshberg Lederman

December 2, 2009

I did something this week that I haven't done in a long time. And while what I did was not a crime, it made me feel like committing one by the end of the day. I spent the afternoon shopping for Hanukkah gifts at the mall.

I started out feeling calm and confident that I could whip through the stores in a few hours and snatch up the perfect presents for all my little loved ones. But within 10 minutes, my confidence turned to frustration, then anger, as I walked through aisle after aisle of games like Mortal Kombat, Devil's Destruction and Ultra Violent World. I was particularly "inspired" by Grand Theft Auto which encourages children to use handguns, grenades, assault rifles, submachine guns and rocket launchers to hijack cars, demolish property and kill policeman just for the sport of it.

Call me old-fashioned, but isn't something terribly wrong with our culture when our best-selling toys encourage and even glorify aggression, destruction and violence? Shouldn't we try harder to deliver a more hopeful message to our children and grandchildren in this fragile and chaotic world?

I am certainly not the first to ask these questions. Ample scientific research indicates that toys and games that promote aggression and violence harm the development and behavior of children. The studies conclude that a direct correlation exists between children who play violent video and computer games and poor school performance, belligerence and physical fighting.

Going back more than 2,000 years, "Jewish research" came to a similar conclusion about the effect of violence and destruction on the human psyche. In times of warfare, the Torah forbids us to destroy any fruit bearing-trees when we conquer a city (Deuteronomy 20:19). We are commanded not to let our ego and our relationship to the world become distorted by our physical conquest of it. The significance of this idea is profound: In the midst of taking the spoils of war, we are required to maintain respect and regard for the earth.

Subscribe to read more.